


Work That Rock

by adorkablephil (kimberly_a)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Denver, Established Relationship, M/M, Self Confidence Issues, Touring, inspired by instagram
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 12:23:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15995153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimberly_a/pseuds/adorkablephil
Summary: Phil has more confidence now, but sometimes he still feels awkward





	Work That Rock

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based on Dan and Phil’s Instagram Stories from 27-29 June 2018, which you can see [here](https://youtu.be/0rwhfeKjLAk), [here](https://youtu.be/_npZajwk_L4), and [here](https://youtu.be/3UoCFvFhTA8). Some knowledge of Stephen King’s _The Shining_ (either the book or the movie) would significantly enhance the reader’s enjoyment of this fic.
> 
> This fic was written for the @phandomficfests Tour II challenge on Tumblr, but was also inspired by the @phanfichallenge Elements Challenge.
> 
> Many thanks to Ev (@insectbah) for their wonderful beta work!

 

Normally Phil spends their flight time watching movies, but he wants to spend the flight from Philadelphia to Denver choosing photos for his new merch website. Thanks to perfectionist Dan and his ever present iPhone, Phil has a dozen different photos of each pose, and a dozen different poses for each item of merch, leaving Phil with hundreds of photos to look through. If he just had a couple photos for each item, Phil would have an easier time choosing, and he would be perfectly happy with the results. He was stressed for months about getting the merchandise itself exactly right, but now that it is all the way he wants it, he isn’t all that worried about the website … but Dan insisted that the photos had to be absolutely perfect.

So in the process of trying to make everything perfect, he’s completely stressed Phil out. Now Phil sits on the plane with his laptop before him, feeling like now _he_ needs to make everything perfect or he’ll let Dan down, because he tried so hard to help.

He loves Dan, but sometimes Dan makes things more difficult than they need to be.

So Phil starts the flight examining minute differences between a million pictures—mostly pictures of himself—trying to choose the ones that present the merch in the best possible light.

He has to admit, though, that he looks good in the photos. Dan has helped him gain confidence about that, so he doesn’t feel like he has to make goofy faces anymore and can just act like himself. “Pretend it’s just me,” Dan keeps saying whenever he takes pictures of Phil now. “Pretend we’re just hanging out at home, and you’re just looking at me, or you’re in the park looking at a fucking squirrel or something. Just act like you, not like everybody’s looking. Because you’re fucking hot when you’re just being yourself—you don’t have to put on an act when the camera is on you. You can pose for a picture without turning yourself into some kind of cartoon character. Just … relax. It’s just you and me.”

Phil still has some trouble with posing, but mostly now he just thinks of the things Dan has said, that it’s just the two of them, just being themselves, and it helps.

Also, he has to admit that the quiff helps, too. He feels like he’s finally left 2011 behind for the man he is today.

Going through millions and millions of merch photos, he eventually just dozes off.

 

* * *

 

Dan starts complaining before they’ve even gotten off the plane in Denver.

“I can’t breathe!” he gasps in full drama queen mode. “Men were not intended to live at such altitudes! Did Icarus teach us nothing? Man should not be this close to the sun! Especially Phil! He’s going to go up like a human torch.”

Martyn rolls his eyes at Phil and they both laugh.

“Give it a rest, Howell,” Martyn says dryly. “You won’t even feel the altitude unless you do significant exercise.”

Sarah chuckles and says, “And what are the chances of that?”

Dan shoots a look at Phil and raises an eyebrow with a little suggestive smirk. Phil grimaces. They’re being very careful about the hotel rooms on their stops, because their fans are incredibly determined and resourceful. You never know who’s going to have a friend’s cousin’s boyfriend’s mum’s neighbor who happens to be a maid in the hotel ... and suddenly Dan and Phil’s last vestiges of privacy would be a thing of the past. If they want to keep anything about their lives truly private, it’s this intimacy—this belongs only to them—but ironically that means they don’t get much alone time together during the tour.

It was great being at home for a bit before heading to America. Not just for the sex, though that was obviously great, but for being able to just behave like a normal couple—or as normal as they get, anyway, which probably isn’t very normal by most people’s standards. But just being able to cuddle on the sofa, being able to kiss whenever they want, being able to wrap his arms around a puffy-faced, crazy-haired Dan as he sips his first coffee in the morning with the sunlight streaming in through the kitchen windows to turn the color of his sleepy eyes to a dark amber. Phil misses it when they’re away … and they’re going to be away for a long while this time.

They’ll get lots of hugs in the next few months, but not many of them will be just the two of them. Mostly they’ll be photos with fans between them, holding both their hands and smiling for the camera. Phil loves meeting their fans—loves getting hugs from them and hearing their stories—but he loves Dan, too. Loves him more than anything else in the world.

So as they stand there in the aisle, waiting to get off the plane, Phil bumps his shoulder against Dan’s and mutters under his breath, “Shut up, you. None of that.” Flirting isn’t fair when they can’t follow through.

Dan sticks his bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout. “None?” he asks plaintively, even though he knows the answer.

“None,” Phil replies firmly.

Dan leans over to whisper in his ear. “Not even if I ask really really nicely?” He licks his wicked little tongue into Phil’s ear so quickly that no one else will even notice. Their tour crew are used to looking the other way, but they need to be careful about the other people on the plane.

Phil sighs heavily and gives Dan his best withering glare. To be honest, Phil knows he doesn’t have the best withering glare, especially when he’s wearing his glasses and he’s just woken up from four hours of merch analysis and dazed napping on a turbulent flight. He knows his quiff must be drooping, too. So he’s not at his best, but he still glares at Dan, who stops the teasing.

The crush of people milling in the aisle seems to push closer and closer to the front of the plane, even though no one is actually leaving yet. Dan is pressed against Phil now, so Phil decides to get back at him a little and casually reaches one hand behind him to rub slowly across the front of Dan’s jeans where no one can see, stroking his hand down toward where he can feel Dan beginning to stir against his own will. Phil gives him a bit of a squeeze and hears him catch his breath. Then Phil pulls his hand back and turns to give Dan a wicked smirk of his own.

“You little fucking shit,” Dan grates in a low voice.

Phil laughs under his breath.

Finally the crush of people begins moving, and they’re able to exit the plane.

 

* * *

 

They have a nearly two-hour drive to their hotel, and it’s already moving toward sunset, so they grab something quick to eat from a diner along the road. Phil watches Dan film the clouds and mountains. He can only see the back of Dan’s head, his ear, and part of his cheek, but when he blinks Phil can see his eyelashes move and it feels strangely private watching him this way, despite the other people in the car. He turns his head to see Phil watching him and reaches down to brush his hand against Phil’s. Small intimacies.

Phil yawns, destroying the brief romantic moment, and Dan huffs out a little laugh at him. Phil is just grateful that they have tomorrow free, because he plans to sleep late, order pancakes from room service, and have nothing to do with anyone. After a day of traveling through American airports with their elaborate security measures, then breathing other people’s air for the length of a flight, he just wants to hug his pillow and fall asleep for a week.

Well, he’d prefer to hug _Dan_ and maybe even do a bit more than sleeping, but right now that isn’t an option. So a pillow and a lazy day of napping sound as perfect as tomorrow’s going to get.

“You guys won’t believe the hotel Martyn picked out for you,” Sarah tells them, and the sly expression on her face makes Phil suddenly extremely suspicious. He’d noticed they seemed to be driving away from the downtown area of Denver but was honestly just a little too tired to even wonder why, let alone ask. They trust their crew. The crew takes care of them. Especially Martyn. He wouldn’t do anything mean to his little brother, right?

Except right now they’re exchanging some very suspicious-looking smiles, and some of them are chuckling. Dan warns, “If you guys are pranking us…”

But Martyn interrupts him to say, “No. It’s … interesting. You’ll be surprised. But I guarantee you’ll love it. And we’re staying in a beautiful nature area, so we have a great hike planned for tomorrow. There are supposed to be amazing views of the mountains!”

So much for Phil’s plans to spend some quality time with his pillow. But it’s always nice to get a chance to see a bit of the areas they travel to, so Phil is excited at the prospect of seeing a bit of the Rocky Mountains. Maybe there will be squirrels! The non-biting, cute kind of squirrels.

“I guess that’s where I’ll be getting that vigorous exercise that’s going to asphyxiate me, right?” Dan quips, but Phil can see in his eyes that he’s looking forward to seeing some of the natural beauty of the Colorado mountains. It’s all so different from England, especially London. Probably not a lot of pigeons out here.

“Choke me, Daddy Denver,” Dan mutters with a pretended lack of enthusiasm.

Always with the “choke me” jokes. He’s so good at putting on the edgy act, even when it’s just them and their crew, but Phil knows the real Dan. He’s been letting his real self show through in photos more often lately, too, Phil thinks. He isn’t always grinning and holding up the peace sign. He isn’t always gazing moodily into the distance. Sometimes he’s just being himself, the way he is when they’re alone together. Not posing.

He’s helping Phil learn to pose more, and maybe Phil is helping him learn to stop posing so much.

 

* * *

 

Dan and Phil both laugh when they see the hotel the crew chose for them: the Stanley Hotel that inspired Stephen King’s _The Shining_. It’s huge and very posh, but the crew got them all the least expensive rooms. It’ll still cost considerably more than they would usually spend on a hotel, but it’s definitely worth it.

They look around the hotel a bit, but they really just want to catch a bite to eat and get some sleep, because it’s been a very long day of traveling. He and Dan vow to explore the hotel tomorrow, when they’re less exhausted and have more energy for getting creeped out. It makes them both laugh … but it’s an uncomfortable kind of laugh, because they’re both already a bit creeped out, just by the lobby.

For cost effectiveness, the crew have booked the two of them into the same room, a room with two twin beds. Fans wouldn’t make much of that, so they do it occasionally. The beds aren’t large enough for two gigantic men to share—they’re barely large enough to sleep one comfortably—so it doesn’t imply anything that might excite fans if they found out about it. Well, some fans can make a big deal about anything, but Dan and Phil can’t worry about every little thing they do, every glance at each other, every smile, or they’d go mad.

So they get to share a room, and Dan climbs on top of Phil for some vigorous kissing and grinding, but there just really isn’t enough space for them to do much more than that. The grinding is enough to make them both come, but it just sort of reminds them of what they’re missing out on. They whisper to each other, reminding themselves that they chose this tour, they chose all of this, it’s incredible, and that they’ll be home alone soon enough. As grown men, they can control their libidos for a while.

Obviously they don’t _want_ to, but they _can_.

Dan goes to his own bed and Phil turn off the lights. Phil cuddles into his pillow as planned and falls asleep almost immediately, but he’s wakened during the night by Dan pushing and pulling at him, trying to press into him enough to fit onto his bed with him. “Whuh?” Phil mumbles without even really waking up.

“I got afraid,” Dan explains, and now that he mentions it, Phil can feel him shaking. “I thought there was a rotting old lady in the bathtub.” Phil’s sweet Dan, sometimes still the same young boy he first met. Sometimes still needing Phil to be the strong one, to comfort him when he’s scared.

Dan clings to him in desperation, and Phil wraps his arms around him, holding him very close so neither of them will fall out of the tiny bed, and somehow they make it work.

 

* * *

 

The hike the next day is amazing, much better than napping all day with a pillow. They hike pretty far into the mountains, high enough that there’s snow on the ground, but they all still feel warm enough in their shorts and light shirts. The combination feels foreign, but kind of exciting. Phil even throws a snowball at Dan to finally get his revenge from last winter’s slow-motion video, and Dan takes it with fairly good grace. A bit annoyed, but in a good-natured way. He knows he deserved it. You can’t pull a prank without expecting retaliation—it’s been in the Dan and Phil handbook from the very beginning.

Their guide takes them to see all the best views, and along the way they spot lots of small animals among the rocks. Phil sees something vaguely squirrel-like, which their guide tells him is a chipmunk. It approaches Phil boldly at first, but then runs off all of a sudden. Dan theorizes that the little animal thought Phil had food, then gave up and ran away when Phil didn’t immediately provide any tasty snacks. Given the number of people who hike this trail, that sounds pretty likely. Actually, Phil is a little surprised that the chipmunk doesn’t have a serious weight problem when he thinks about how frequently it must get treats from enchanted hikers. _Ha! I did not fall into your cute clutches, you wily chipmunk! You got no treats from me!_

But, to be honest, he wishes he’d had some snacks to give the chipmunk.

They also see a small animal that looks like nothing either of them has ever seen before. The guide tells them that it’s a marmot, which charms Dan so much that he makes the same noises he made when he first met Louise’s baby and Cat’s puppy. “It’s like a tiny squirrel bear,” Dan coos, and Phil thinks to himself that _he’s_ more adorable than any of these cute wild creatures.

 _A wild Dan appears!_ Phil thinks to himself, and chuckles inwardly.

He likes a wild Dan. He _loves_ a wild Dan. He’d love to _make_ Dan wild … but that won’t be happening, because of prying eyes. Not for a while. It’ll be all the sweeter when they get back home, though, for all the waiting.

 

* * *

 

“Okay, Phil, pose,” Dan tells him.

Phil spreads his arms and leans against the stone with a traditional silly AmazingPhil overly dramatic attitude. Everyone has taken photos with the big rock that reads “Estes Park,” but on his own turn Phil is having trouble feeling confident and sexy on the awkward rocks. He can’t tell where to put his feet, and he suddenly feels less like post-quiff Phil and more like pre-quiff Phil. Not like the merch photo Phil at all.

Dan urges him, “No, just, like, lean against the rock. You know.” This reminds him of the video when he let the viewers pick his outfits. He feels terribly self-conscious, like he doesn’t know what to do, and like he’s letting Dan down. Dan wants him to act like a serious model, like Dan has always been able to do, even back when he was just a teenager. Phil has never really been able to do that. Well, he did okay with the merch photos, but right now he just feels aware that millions of people watch everything he does, and it’s easiest to fall back on what’s familiar, which is acting the fool, making people laugh at him on purpose instead of having them laugh at him when he’s trying to be serious. He’d rather just not try looking sexy, not take the chance of failing and looking like an idiot instead.

But he took a chance on the quiff, and everybody loved it. And the merch photos look good. So … maybe Phil can do this. Maybe Dan can talk him through it, since he knows how to pull it off. People are always saying he could be a model, but they never said that about Phil, because he was always making funny faces and acting awkward.

He wishes he could be more like Dan.

But Dan thinks he’s sexy.

So he’ll try.

Phil leans one long arm along the top of the rock and sort of looks off into the distance, but apparently this doesn’t work. Not according to Dan, and he would know. “Kneel into it or something.” _Kneel into it? How am I supposed to kneel into a rock? I’m not giving head or tying my shoelace—I’m leaning on a fucking rock in front of a dozen people who are watching me, for god’s sake!_ He has no idea what Dan wants from him, but he keeps trying.

“Just, like, _work_ the rock,” Dan says, as if that’s the easiest thing in the world. _That’s the sort of thing they say to models, right? Doesn’t he realize how difficult this is for me?_ Phil laughs awkwardly, having no idea what Dan means, what he expects him to do, but knowing for certain that he is not the sort of person who can “work the rock.” Dan would be able to do it. He would stare moodily off into the distance and make it look effortless, like he wasn’t posing at all. Or he would make it look ironically posed.

Phil wishes again that he could be more like Dan.

So he keeps trying, shuffling his feet and trying to find a comfortable position that will look good. The quiff worked out—he can do this, too, if he just keeps trying. Trying to be brave and confident and … a more attractive Phil. A less goofy Phil. More _himself_ , instead of always playing the clown. It’s easy enough for him to feel confident and sexy at home in the flat, so he’s sure he can manage it in public someday. Dan keeps telling him that he can.

So he keeps trying.

But he has absolutely no idea how to “work the rock,” and Dan should know that. Dan knows him better than anyone else ever has. He knows Phil is awkward as fuck. He knows how long it took him to go public with the quiff, and how scared Phil was. Dan encouraged him and talked him through his nerves for months. And now he expects Phil to just figure out how to “work the rock” in a few minutes. With the entire crew and several strangers looking on?

“This is definitely a video,” Dan finally says in an amused voice, and Phil feels his heart break a little bit. He’s let Dan down—he’s made a fool of himself, just as he feared. And now Dan’s going to post this on Instagram for everyone to see Phil’s embarrassing failure to … well … be Dan. Be _like_ Dan. Phil’s failure to look like a serious, confident, sexy man … the way he feels with Dan in the bedroom … the way he’s always felt with him in private. In public, knowing that people are watching, it’s completely different. Phil doesn’t know what to do with his body or his face. He doesn’t know how to be like Dan, who has always made it look so easy. Even when he was 18, he had that bravado, that ability to show himself to best advantage and trust that people would want him. He might have felt insecure on the inside—he might still feel that way a lot of the time—but he knows how to project an image of confidence in his own attractiveness.

So now he’s going to post this video to Instagram, making Phil the butt of his joke, showing how hopeless Phil is at being sexy. How utterly awkward Phil is.

But then Dan puts his phone in his pocket and walks over to where Phil has been sort of moving around on the rock, trying to “work the rock,” whatever the hell that means, and he puts his hands on Phil. Not in a sexual way, just guiding him. “Here,” he says softly. “Let me.” And he looks at the rock, looks at Phil’s legs, then shows Phil where to put his right foot, how to bend his left knee slightly, and suddenly it feels more comfortable, more natural, more right. Phil leans both hands on the rock in a casual sort of way, and Dan moves his shoulder forward slightly.

Phil feels safe under his hands. He knows he can trust Dan. Dan knows how to do this, and he’ll help Phil.

This must have been how Dan felt when Phil encouraged him to post his first video. This must have been how he felt the first time they made love. Trusting Phil to guide him through it, trusting Phil to help him, trusting Phil to make it not embarrassing.

And this time, Dan doesn’t step away and raise his phone to take the photos. He doesn’t leave Phil standing there alone on the rock. He stands beside him, instead, but he looks away from the camera so that the focus is still on Phil, and Phil looks up into the sky with his best “working the rock” expression, and he hears a couple members of the crew wolf whistle. Then Sarah calls out, “Looking good, Phil!” and Dan turns to look at him again, and he grins, proud of both of them. Happy. Happy like the first time Phil worked the quiff and felt good about it.

Happy like Phil knows he’ll feel someday when he convinces Phil to wear those ripped jeans.

He keeps assuring Phil he can pull off the ripped jeans, that he’ll look sexy and not ridiculous. He gropes Phil when Phil wears them and whispers dirty things in Phil’s ear about how they get him hot, how hot Phil looks, how everyone will think so. But … Phil’s not ready for that … not yet.

Not when he still doesn’t know how to “work the rock” without Dan’s help.

But when he sees the Estes Park rock photo, Phil is shocked at how great they both look. At how great _he_ looks. Dan always looks like that, but seeing _himself_ staring off into the distance, cool, wearing sunglasses like a model … he never thought that would be possible.

But Dan helped. And he stood by Phil’s side so that Phil wasn’t alone.

It isn’t until they get back to the hotel, not until Phil can get him into their room for just a few minutes of privacy, that he kisses Dan, and he puts everything he feels into that kiss. He takes Dan’s face in his hands, and he kisses him for trusting Phil all those years ago, and for helping Phil trust him today, for being his partner in every way, for treating Phil as his equal today and every day, even when he doesn’t believe it himself. He presses gentle kisses to Dan’s cheeks and nose and forehead, and Dan laughs. Phil kisses his lips again, like Dan is the most precious thing in the world to him, because he is.

“What’s all this for?” Dan asks, confused. He doesn’t even know. Doesn’t even see what he gives to Phil so easily, how he sees what Phil needs and instinctively helps him with it.

Maybe Phil does the same for him, and maybe Phil doesn’t notice it, either. Maybe they’re like that for each other.

When Dan shows him the footage of Phil’s utter failure to “work the rock,” embarrassing himself in his usual awkward way, Phil tells him to go ahead and post it, because the first Instagram story he posted that day was the photo of the two of them together, looking straight out of a magazine. Probably Phil’s favorite photo ever taken of him, because he looks confident and relaxed and cool, but also hot … and not in a temperature kind of way, even though it _was_ rather warm that day and he had to wear SPF 5,000 sunscreen.

It’s his favorite photo of himself because he looks sexy, and because Dan was the one who helped him not only look that way but also _feel_ that way, and because Dan stayed by his side when the photo was taken.

He remembers that insecure 18-year-old he first met at the Manchester Piccadilly train station, and he realizes he helped Dan become this self-confident man who has stepped so far outside of his comfort zone, talking openly about his mental health problems and advocating publicly about the issues that matter to him … and now, all these years later, he’s returning the favor. He’s helping Phil grow, just like Phil helped him.

So it’s okay for him to post a video that makes Phil look silly, because he also helped Phil look sexy and confident. He helped Phil look like Phil, the way he is when they’re alone. Phil looks at that photo and feels like _himself_. His _best_ self.

Phil kisses each of Dan’s eyelids and whispers, “I love you.”

Dan opens his eyes and looks at him, and those are the same eyes Phil first saw at the Manchester Piccadilly train station almost a decade ago, still filled with wonder when he looks at Phil, like Phil is something beautiful and amazing. Like he’s truly amazing Phil, and not just the AmazingPhil moniker he’d initially chosen to be purposely ridiculous because he didn’t feel amazing back then. And most of the time Phil doesn’t feel amazing now. But when Dan looks at him … he feels it. He feels amazing.

 

* * *

 

When they see the Stanley Hotel from a distance on the hike, it takes their breath away. And it isn’t just because of the altitude. Huge and gorgeous and stately, the hotel doesn’t look at all like an axe-wielding murderer’s lair! But they’ve already been inside, and they know how creepy the place really is. They both look forward to getting back so they can do some exploring.

_Redrum. Redrum. Redrum._

When they get back they stand chatting in the lobby with the crew, getting ready to go on their sinister solo adventure. _Can it be a solo adventure if it’s two of us? Well, the crew isn’t coming along, at any rate. It’ll just be us._

And then, milling near the front desk, Dan just randomly takes an awkward step in the wrong direction or something … and he knocks over an entire display of pamphlets advertising various local tourist opportunities. The display stand makes a huge crash when it hits the ground, and pamphlets slide all over the floor. Everyone in the lobby turns to look. Not just the tour crew, but also the hotel staff and several strangers. Dan tries to act cool, but Phil can see him cringing as they all crouch down to help pick up the pamphlets. Dan looks embarrassed, but like he doesn’t want to show it.

Phil decides that sometimes Dan doesn’t know how to “work the rock” either—sometimes he’s just an awkward dork. And Phil loves that about him. And Phil realizes that maybe Dan loves that about _him_ , too.

 

* * *

 

A little tired after their long hike, they both still want to explore the hotel, so they head out on their own to walk the hallways. Kubrick didn’t actually shoot the film here, but Stephen King’s original idea for the book came from a visit to this hotel, and Phil can see why.

As they walk along through the halls, Phil thinks of Danny in the movie, with all those ominous extended steadishots of him riding his Big Wheel tricycle through the various public areas, across tile and carpet, with that ominously rhythmic thumping sound.

Ha. Danny. He hadn’t thought about the character’s name until right now.

Dan’s like the little boy in the film, except maybe slightly more scared.

They both shoot some Instagram stories of the hotel, and Dan tries to make a joke out of it, but Phil can tell he honestly doesn’t like being here. Well, he doesn’t like it in the same way he doesn’t like scary movies—which is to say he loves it, even though it scares the hell out of him.

He doesn’t like it in the same way he doesn’t like _The Ring,_ which he’s watched at least ten times. He’s actually _afraid_ of girls with long dark hair. But he loves to be scared.

He’s scared of twin little girls, too. And moldy old ladies in bathtubs.

Which means Phil isn’t very surprised when Dan sneaks into his bed again that night. He’s quivering with fear, so Phil holds him tightly in his arms and shushes him gently. “The scary old lady in the bathtub isn’t going to get you,” Phil murmurs, and it makes Dan laugh, just like Phil intended. “Just think about the furry scene with the bear suit.” Dan laughs again. “There’s even more furry content in the book.”

“I forgot about the furry,” he whispers against the skin of Phil’s neck, and then he places a soft kiss there. “Thank you for not making me feel stupid for being scared.”

“Oh, you’re totally stupid for being scared,” Phil teases, and Dan laughs again. His body isn’t shaking anymore and he just presses close to Phil, his skin all warm and smooth, his arm tight around Phil’s waist. “Just like I’m stupid for not knowing how to pose on a rock.”

“Yeah, but I laughed at you,” he says, sounding guilty. “You don’t laugh at me when I do something stupid.”

Phil chuckles there in the dark. “Sure I do. You just don’t notice, because you don’t mind. It’s just us. We’re awkward weirdos, but we love each other that way. That’s why it’s always worked.” Phil can feel Dan nod against his shoulder, then hears him yawn. Phil considers suggesting that Dan move back to his own bed now that he’s calmed down, but then figures he’ll just wake Phil up in another hour after another nightmare, so he may as well let him stay. Phil pulls Dan a bit on top of him, and he mumbles something Phil can’t understand, obviously already mostly asleep. They keep their arms wrapped around each other, and Phil feels Dan’s body go slack with sleep.

Phil lays there in the dark with Dan in his arms and thinks about the day. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t know how to “work the rock.” It doesn’t matter that Dan laughed, or that he posted that Instagram story of him looking awkward as hell. Because Dan knocked over that entire display of pamphlets in the hotel lobby, and Dan gets scared by horror movies and needs somebody to comfort him like a little kid.

Dan’s laugh when Phil couldn’t “work the rock” wasn’t mocking—it was fond. Just like Phil feels fond of Dan when he makes a bad pun to an unamused barista. They both do stupid stuff. They both got ridiculously excited by tiny animals on the hike. They’re giant kids in some ways, and they’re about as awkward as kids stumbling around in giant bodies, too. And that’s okay. That’s fine. That’s what they love about each other … and it’s part of what their fans love about them, too.

It’s okay to be awkward or weird. Phil has said that to his viewers a million times, but sometimes, when it’s about _himself_ , he forgets for a minute. Him not knowing how to “work the rock” was just as much a part of him as the quiff or the cool photo or loving cute animals or comforting Dan in the night when he’s terrified by something other people might consider silly.

They’re just themselves, and that’s the whole point. And, yeah, that’s amazing.

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my other fics! And I'm @adorkablephil on Tumblr, so feel free to stop by to say hi any time.


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